Pa. judge rules no primary to pick jury commissioners

HARRISBURG — A state judge has ruled that county jury commissioner races will not appear on next month’s spring primary ballot and the candidates instead will be chosen by the political parties.

In a decision posted Friday, Judge James Gardner Colins ruled against a jury commissioners’ group that had asked to have the races put on the May 21 ballot. The issue arose after the state Supreme Court last month threw out a 2011 law under which 42 counties had eliminated their jury commissioners.

Colins said it would not be possible to include the races in the primary “without creating a chaotic, expensive and unmanageable system.”

Sam Stretton, who represents the Pennsylvania State Association of Jury Commissioners and several commissioners who had sued, said they would appeal to the Supreme Court next week.

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“It’s not over yet,” Stretton said. “I think it’s a gross violation of the First Amendment. The testimony was they could do it, but it would be difficult. This is a democracy — we must have elections.”

The counties had argued that putting the contests on the primary ballot at this point would be expensive, and some absentee overseas ballots were already mailed out, raising the possibility that people serving in the military would not be able to vote for the commissioner races.

“We’re just too far down the road,” said Doug Hill, executive director of the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania. “Even though the Department of State testified correctly that if a court orders us to do it we’ll find a way to do it, there are drop-dead times that make this a practical impossibility.”

Colins wrote that time constraints and costs were part of the reason he did not order a compressed schedule that would have put the races on the primary ballot.

“This would mandate last minute printing of ballots and reprogramming of the voting machines, which would not only create confusion, but also would burden all counties involved with significant unbudgeted expenditures,” the judge said.

The high court threw out the jury commissioner abolition law on grounds that it violated the state constitution’s requirement that bills be confined to a single subject.

The top-ranking leaders in the House and Senate have asked for that ruling to be reconsidered, and a bill was introduced this week that would re-authorize the power to eliminate the offices.

Two jury commissioners of different parties serve in each county. They develop procedures to pick jury lists, make sure jurors are chosen fairly and manage people who are called to serve.

The association’s research indicates that the posts were established shortly after the Civil War because of concerns that sheriffs and county commissioners had too much authority to select jury pools, and that political factors were able to influence jury composition.